I installed Netbeans 7.0.1, and I've made sure to install all the JDKs and JREs I could find. It installed without errors. I also saw this question and made sure I followed all the instructions there as well.

I never got any error messages of any kind. So far as I know, it installed okay.

However, when I try to run Netbeans, I get no response. If I run it from the command line, after about 30 seconds, the prompt just comes back. There's no error message of any kind to let me know what's wrong.

$ /bin/sh "/home/dave/netbeans-7.0.1/bin/netbeans"
$

What's the issue, and how do I get Netbeans to run?

New command line output as a result of following instructions offered in an answer:

Thank you for responding. Yes, I am on 11.10, and my system is 64 bit. I followed your instructions as exactly as I could, but it did not change anything.
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QuestionerNov 27 '11 at 4:31

Dave, no problem, just trying to help. Please try to uninstall the actual netbeans you have installed and download it again. Did you also checked the checksum of the downloaded file (just in case its a bad download) ?
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Manco1911Nov 27 '11 at 4:34

Yes, redownloading it worked! I can only guess that between last time I downloaded it and this time, my Java settings changed as per the instructions here. In other words, one needs to have the right Java set up from the start - changing it after having installed Netbeans won't cut it. Thank you for the help!
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QuestionerNov 27 '11 at 4:44

This is quite old now but I just ran into the same problem with Ubuntu 13.04 and Netbeans 7.3.1

The reason for this is because when Netbeans is run with root privilleges to install all plugins it creates ~/.cache/netbeans/7.3.1/* with root permissions and doesn't clear those files when exiting. When you run it with your user, it's denied access to those files thus Netbeans terminates without a warning.

Which Java/Ubuntu you are using? To guess, I think what you need is the Sun/Oracle Java and not OpenJDK. Since Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, Sun Java (now Oracle) was removed from the Multiverse section of the software repositories; so you have most likely installed OpenJDK. To install the right Java for lucid...

I wrote a install script for NetBeans aimed at users running a dual system with VirtualBox. After running this script you will be able to launch netbeans from the terminal and if you are running it as a guest system on VirtualBox, be able to mount the from host to guest with means of scripts that are built in your /usr/local/bin directory: